The year 2021 is going to be the busiest spring season for Stony Brook Athletics.
On Thursday, Nov. 5, Stony Brook released its America East conference schedule for seven sports set to play in the spring: baseball, men’s and women’s lacrosse, softball, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball. The latter three were originally scheduled to play in Fall 2020 before the America East postponed all fall sports to the spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schedules for swimming and diving, cross country and track and field have yet to be released.
The Stony Brook volleyball team is the first to begin its conference schedule, with a home doubleheader against the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) on Sunday, Feb. 28 at Pritchard Gymnasium. In lieu of a traditional home-and-home series with every team in the conference, the season’s 12 conference games – two against each opponent – will be played via doubleheaders.
Men’s soccer begins conference play on Friday, March 5 against UMBC home at Kenneth P. LaValle Stadium. Its six conference games include two against UMBC, two against New Hampshire, and one each against both the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and UMass Lowell. All games are scheduled for Fridays.
Likewise, for the Stony Brook women’s soccer team, its season also begins with a home matchup against UMBC on Sunday, March 7. A six-game conference season will be played exclusively on Sundays.
Men’s lacrosse begins its seven-game conference season on Saturday, March 20 on the road at UMass Lowell. Women’s lacrosse begins its seven-game conference season a week later at home against Albany.
Baseball starts its conference season home at Joe Nathan Field against Maine on Saturday, March 20, while the softball team opens its conference slate against Binghamton on Saturday, March 27. Both teams will play a three-game series against their opponents, with a Saturday doubleheader and a single Sunday game.
The schedules were planned to limit travel as a result of the pandemic. With sports from two seasons playing at once, there will be continuous action and there are currently days on the calendar with five teams scheduled to have competitions on the same day.
